We leave a little late this morning, having said goodbye to Chris and Zoe, and bought lunch from the Famous Blacksmiths shop. They are getting ready for another wedding. The sandwich choice is a bit limited, leading Richard to say ‘Welcome to Scotland, spot the vegetable’. There was a choice of fruit, however, and not everything was on display yet, as Rich acknowledged.
There is a choice of routes to Ecclefechan. We could go directly via the B7076, but this is likely to be busy and runs alongside the M74, so not ideal. We could also go down to a path along the Solway Firth and up the Annan Way, but the distance is around 20 miles and it’s 30 degrees with 50% humidity, so we decide to take a loop around unclassified roads, maybe with a path later in the day.
We see a yellow hammer at the beginning of the day as we leave Gretna Green. We then stop at ten o’clock for an agreed call to our son, Robert, who was manning the decks single-handed yesterday as Tom had gone to Hull on the Norwich away supporters’ coach. We have a good chat with Rob, the three of us putting the world to rights and off we go down the road again.
As we top a rise, we get an unusual view of the Lakeland fells to our south and Criffel to the west. The scenery is very benign and bucolic, but the heat and humidity are as bad as predicted, and it’s a difficult day for us. We have been lucky so far. Despite the heat, we have almost always been cheerful, but today has been a struggle. We knew this section before Glasgow was lacking in paths and would most likely involve road walking; we didn’t know Scotland would have a heatwave and the roads would have negligible shade.
As we pass some cows, I stop to photograph them cooling off in Logan Burn, a small stream. They then have a stampede around in our honour before settling down again. They seem hot and bored, as far as I can tell. We take a short break under an ash tree, then off we go once more. At least there is hardly any traffic, as we are on an unclassified road. There are also glimpses of a noisy sparrow hawk family, the first we have seen on this trip.
The road becomes slightly busier as it combines with another unclassified road, but it’s still pretty quiet as we stop on a shady verge for lunch. Two cars stop to check on us. This hasn’t happened before, even though several cars have passed us stopped by roads over the last few weeks. Maybe it’s because this is not normal walking country or normal weather.
We join the B722 and have to decide whether to take some more minor roads over a longer distance or join a path further on. We opt for the path, as this would make a change on this tarmac heavy day. We head into Eaglesfield, the only conurbation mid walk today, but the path is no more and the inn beside it has closed down since the Ordnance Survey last mapped here.
We carry on along the road, eventually joining the B7076 for the last one and a half miles into town. There is no cover here, but there is a cycle path adjacent to the carriageway that we walk along. The B7076 gradually converges with the M74 then we pass under the motorway and turn off to the Cressfield House hotel. We have a soft drink (orange juice and tonic with ice) in the bar, then it’s up to our room for tea, showers and a nap ‘watching’ David Attenborough. Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow.
Total distance so far: 433 miles